Literature Does NOT Imitate Life (Maybe??)

In Lynn's "The Unifying Work," it is stated that "Literature does not imitate life in any literal way, according to New Critics; instead, poems (and other works) create realities of their own, transforming and ordering our experience." To what extent do you agree, or disagree with this statement? Earlier in the text, it was said that "a poem should be motionless in time." If you believe poems/other works create realities of their own, do you think that plays a part in making poems motionless in time?

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